VCU Faculty awarded state grants supporting no-cost course materials

February 18, 2020

VCU faculty are a part of three out of 14 projects awarded in the Fall 2019 cycle of the Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA) Course Redesign Grants. This funding supports faculty in transitioning to course materials available at no cost to students, such as open educational textbooks and/or library resources.

The three VCU projects were awarded a combined $57,820 out of $206,955 awarded this cycle. VCU was one of 14 Virginia institutions represented in this round of awards. A full list of recipients and brief project descriptions from the Fall 2019 cycle can be found on theVIVA website.

"The Craft of Sociological Research: Principles and Methods of Collecting, Analyzing, and Presenting Social Science Data"

This team will create an open textbook to be used in all research methods classes in the Sociology department. The textbook will include multimedia, such as videos and blogs, and will spotlight Virginia researchers and examples. This sociology research methods book was also a recipient of a 2019VCU Affordable Course Content Awardadministered by VCU Libraries.

"It's an honor to receive this generous grant from VIVA to write our research methods textbook, on top of all the support that VCU Libraries has provided us through the Affordable Course Content Awards,” Chen said. “We know the statewide competition for grant funding can be intense, but VCU is well ahead of other universities when it comes to supporting the growing field of open educational resource development. The advice, resources, contacts, and other backing we received from VCU Libraries were a tremendous help in crafting a winning proposal for the VIVA grant. We're grateful for all the guidance and encouragement we received, and we're excited to put together a high-quality methods textbook that makes sociological knowledge freely accessible to students.”

"Teaching Cultural Anthropology for 21st Century Learners"

This project aims to create an undergraduate textbook that focuses on trends in 21st century anthropology and the ways that the discipline can help students contextualize and understand global issues.

The project is led byCortney Hughes Rinker, Ph.D., associate professor at George Mason University, andSheena Nahm, Ph.D., adjunct professor at theNew School for Public Engagement and vice president for research and development atHealthLeads, with assistance fromSarah Raskin, Ph.D., VCU assistant professor,Aaron McCollough, Ph.D.,director, George Mason University Press and Mason Publishing Group, andAndrew Lee, Ph.D., humanities and social sciences librarian at George Mason University.

VCU’s Raskin will be serving as a subject matter expert on the project. She plans to use the textbook in classes she teaches in the Wilder School.

The VIVA Course Redesign Grants are designed to empower Virginia faculty with the resources and time they need to redesign courses by swapping textbooks and other expensive course materials for open, no cost, or library options. The program award grants from $1,000 to $30,000to assist faculty in transitioning to course materials available at no cost to students, such as open educational textbooks and/or library resources.

The Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA) administers the grant program. VIVA is a consortium of academic libraries that collaborates on public policy priorities and shares costs and negotiates joint use of resources to strengthen stewardship of state dollars. The Virginia General Assembly and member libraries funds VIVA, which is also sponsored by the State Council ofHigher Education(SCHEV).